VIDEO | Unirai journalists celebrate with bubbles and penne all’arrabbiata: “Now it’s our turn”

The union members met for the 'Toast of freedom' while on the same day Usigrai protested for freedom of information

ROME – ‘We are believers and professing people – at a certain point a Rai 1 journalist raises her voice – we are the Pope’s network, do we want to defend our religion or not?’. The religious scent mixes with that of the fried foods and the penne all’arrabbiata which arrive steaming, colored by a generous sprinkle of parsley. An evening in the heart and belly of Unirai, the union that is fighting ‘to break the Usigrai monopoly’ in Viale Mazzini. Here is the news of the ‘Toast of Freedom’, the event advertised with a photo of two glasses of bubbles on a dark background, enlivened by a tricolor explosion. A popular national big bang: ‘Unirai, free Rai journalists’. Where we blossom with the soundtrack of Captain Harlock, the ‘all-black pirate who only has the sky as his home’. Japanese cartoon dear to the right-right and Giorgia Meloni.

On the same day that Usigrai protests in Viale Mazzini for freedom of information, Unirai makes an appointment ‘for a discussion with members’ at 7pm at the Due Ponti Sporting club, on Flaminia , five minutes drive from Saxa Rubra. An immense centre, dozens of sports practiced. At the scheduled time there is almost no one in the restaurant room, ‘booked for forty people’, says a manager of the club. Everything parades around, waiting for journalists: kids in bathrobes after swimming lessons, tennis and padel players. A large group of men and women run and bustle in the open air, among the streets and flowerbeds: it is the crossfit group. From the gym where pre-boxing is trained, however, the techno music comes very loudly. Discreet chaos. Difficult to converse outside the private room and challenging to intercept the well-known faces of Rai between a push-up and a left hook. Roberto Mancini, the former coach of the national team, also passes by in great form.

Inside the restaurant the tables are set: canapés, sandwiches, sandwiches with mortadella, finger food, aubergine meatballs, octopus and potatoes. Fried foods: potatoes, courgette flowers, cod. The prosecco is already being opened, even if the secretary of Unirai, Francesco Palese, organizer of the aperitif, is not yet there. Some well-known faces arrive: Lorenzo Lo Basso, host of Agorà Estate, Sonia Sarno of Tg1, deputy director Grazia Graziadei. And then Incoronata Boccia, ‘Cora’ for everyone. Less than a month ago, as Serena Bortone’s guest, he said on TV that ‘abortion is a crime, not a right’. Rain of criticism, questions in Rai Supervision, insults and death threats. ‘You were very brave’, more than one colleague tells her. Boccia deputy director of Tg1? No, he prefers deputy director: ‘But do you think these are the battles to be fought?’. She is the star of the Crowned evening: sought, greeted and kissed.

Almost at the end of the evening, during a conversation with a colleague who was impossible not to listen to, Boccia returns to that television episode: ‘I have never attacked women, I just said things as they are: abortion is murder . These are strong words, I know, I said it. I don’t think we can or should force women not to have an abortion. But it’s a drama. I know doctors who after years of practicing abortion have become objectors. They all attacked me, they questioned my ability to make a headline or create a news program just because I expressed my opinion. Nobody criticized me on the merits: that wouldn’t have worried me, but attacking my work as a journalist did, as if I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m lucky, I have faith. The best phone call I received was from a priest who told me ‘Good, but you should have expected that such a truth would move the forces down below ”. Dante teaches, there is the devil. The Rai 1 colleague seizes the moment: ‘It’s true, you are protected from above, but you have moved the forces of the devil. We are the Pope’s network, we broadcast Christmas and Easter mass live, do we want to defend our religion or not? You can’t say anything anymore, but then the sun salutation, the meditation lessons, sixteen minutes of someone telling how he changed sex and can’t we talk about the Madonna?’.

It happens that many people want to talk, let off steam, let themselves go ‘after years of Usigrai monopoly’. ‘We fear repercussions,’ they whisper. In exchange they ask for anonymity. ‘We have been harassed, denigrated and discriminated against – says a Tgr journalist – but now it’s our turn’. Many come from a ‘cell’ created years ago within the unitary union with the name of Pluralism and freedom. Now that the split is done, we need to fill the notebooks with stories. ‘The Rai Democratic Party – says a technician, given that Unirai has opened its doors and membership cards to non-journalists too – is split in the election of the next Board of Directors. They would like to bring home two: Roberto Natale voted by Parliament and Alessandra Clementini by the employees. But in Rai many prefer Davide Di Pietro. They even argue among themselves.’ The reasoning is interrupted by the arrival of a joyful councilor from the Order of Journalists: ‘This morning in Viale Mazzini there were four cats from Usigrai. Corsini sent me the photos, look… look’. The cell phone passes from hand to hand, leaving a trail of smiles. The name of Paolo Corsini, director of the FdI quota analysis, comes up when talking about the Scurati case. ‘He screwed up, period – claims one guest – do you want to know why? Because the government had put him on the grill because of Report. He wasn’t able to block some bets that he really didn’t like and so this time he wanted to go down hard, but he screwed up. If Scurati was on the air, no one would mind. But who is the government? ‘I can’t tell you’.

A message is still circulating on the phones of some that the director of Tg 1 sent on the evening of May 6, the day of the strike which Unirai did not join: ‘Today was a historic page for Rai, an event epochal. For the first time a strike called by the red Usigrai union resulted in an unprecedented boomerang. Rainews, the historic red fort, also broadcast various information spaces and the site was regularly updated as was Televideo. Tonight, however, there is none of the directors who broadcast the news that day.

‘Pino Insegno couldn’t come, he’s in Naples, but he says hello to us’. Word of Palese, who as soon as he arrives is hugged and photographed by everyone. Selfies with the secretary are popular. Insegno will soon be back on air with ‘Reazione a catena’ on Rai 1. ‘Yes, but the program he really wanted to do was another one, they prevented it’. Which? ‘A renewed version of Inheritance, where 95% was done on social media and then the rest on TV in the evening. All day long people could play on their mobile phones and then in the evening they would connect to the TV to see if they had won.

The chatter becomes a story. Many know things, they wink, they imply. ‘Carlo Conti does Sanremo, that’s for sure’. We can also glimpse a representative of the Italian Journalists, the association founded a couple of months ago with the blessing of the centre-right government and Parliament. There are about forty people, as per booking. Few familiar faces. It’s a party. We eat, we drink. A documentary manager says: ‘Almost everyone here comes from Usigrai. Let’s face it, half of those present were from the Democratic Party, now they smelled the air. Rai is still full of Renzians, they are everywhere. He, like the others, talks about discrimination suffered and gifts given to others: ‘Only friends of friends of the left are promoted. Not because you’re good’.
They care about public television, they assure us. They want to defend the company, ‘enhance internal resources’. They are sorry for the cancellation of the duel between Meloni and Schleinand look critically at some editorial choices: ‘Incredible that money should be thrown away on a horrendous program that cost seven million euros. With the same money – adds the journalist – we would make 70 beautiful documentaries.

There is also a storm at Rai Sport, listening to what is said between the tables. With the Olympics and the European Championships just around the corner there is a great desire to be among the correspondents. ‘The director Jacopo Volpi has chosen an ordinary editor only because he is of the right movement and will not send the historic correspondents’, a journalist gets angry. Volpi should retire soon, he consoles himself. ‘He is part of Forza Italia but he is from the Democratic Party, everyone knows it. He is a friend of Malagò, who called Gianni Letta and, voila’. Rumors, poisons and claims abound. The two laden tables do not empty. Nobody binge eats. They toast freedom with glasses in hand.

Secretary Unirai Palese makes the speech. ‘May 6 was a historic date for Rai, something happened that had never happened. Someone says that the trade union front has broken down, we say that pluralism has been born’. Applause. ‘This appointment was scheduled before our cousins launched this morning’s initiative in Viale Mazzini which, they told me, was not exactly well attended…’. He is interrupted by a journalist: ‘Together with the tramps there were about twenty!’, laughter. ‘I greatly appreciated the speech of my colleague from Rai News 24, Enrica Agostini, who had the merit of recalling those present with a very simple question: today we are talking about the democratic emergency, but why weren’t we here in 2015 when it entered Is the Renzi reform in force? In that question lies the answer. It is a totally instrumental maneuver because today some party to carry out its electoral campaign for the European elections is using, among other arguments, this invention of Tele Meloni denied by the Pavia Observatory, by Agcom and by the Italians who don’t believe it because otherwise there would have been a large gathering today under the RAI headquarters.
Final applause and another toast. ‘Now we need music to dance’, they shout from the tables. But it seems it is not foreseen. No DJs or trains. However, someone approaches the speakers with their cell phone and connects the jack. ‘Captain Harlock! Captain Harlock! Captain Harlock!’. The theme song from the 1979 cartoon, the space pirate with an eye patch stuck on the walls of CasaPound, plays at full volume. Five years ago Giorgia Meloni celebrated him publicly: ‘I only fight for what I believe in. Forty years ago, Captain Harlock, ‘the space pirate’, landed in Italy. He was the symbol of a generation that challenged the apathy and indifference of the people, fighting against those who wanted to deprive them of their future.